The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring thin sheet-like articles, such as glass mask substrates and wafers, one by one from a transfer passage to a predetermined postiion at a surface treating device such as a spinner.
Heretofore, in the semiconductor industry, glass mask substrates have been produced by coating glass substrates with a photoresist, drying the same, exposing a predetermined mask pattern, and performing an etching treatment. In this case, it is essential that the photoresist film be of uniform thickness; otherwise, the etched mask pattern itself could not be made accurately. Accordingly, they are carefully coated one by one by a rotary surface treating device such as a spinner. This surface treating device, as is known in the art, has a spindle carrying a spindle head on its upper end adapted to suck and hold a substrate to whose surface a photoresist is applied by rotating said spindle. A need exists in a device for transferring and feeding substrates to this rotary surface treating device.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a thin sheet-like article transferring apparatus capable of adjusting itself to the shape and size of a thin sheet-like article to grip it in transferring and feeding thin sheet-like articles of various shapes and sizes from a transfer passage to a predetermined treating device.